Dragonfly Issue One by Dragon Rouge

A fresh look at the world from the leading independent brand agency group

+ When Clients & Agencies Cross Wires + Perfect State of Health? + Howies + Patrick Burgoyne + Overheard +

Is the Craft of Branding Dying? Brand Honesty – Get real!

In today’s world of falsehoods and fabrications, is authenticity always the best policy?

It’s time for packaging design to go back to basics

www.dragonbrands.com

Dragon www.dragonbrands.com

Issue1

Written by

Tom Baizley Photos b

CONTENTS TO BE CONTINUED…

06 Upfront You heard it here first. Round-up of the latest marketing news

08 How Cool? Honda’s Robot ‘Asimo’ is coming on in leaps and bounds

10 Dubai Bigger, Harder, Faster, Stronger. Will the bubble ever burst?

12 Retrospective How drinks brand Ballantine’s keeps traditional yet fresh

14 Is the Craft of Branding Dying in Packaging? Does today’s creative process block the development of a strong brand idea? The time has come to get back to basics.

18 Brand Honesty How important is authenticity? We look at why brands need to keep it real

Dragon

Call us 22 Perfect State of Health Art Director Craig Brooks Managing Editor Kerry O’Connor

Contributing Writers Kate Waddell, Keith Wells, Keshi Bouri, Dorothy Mackenzie, Chris Barber, Kitty Melrose, Camilla Way, Nina Cooper, Joe Hale, David Benady, Simon Attfield, Duncan Baizley, Lee Turner, Maeve Hosea & Tom Harvey Photographers Stuart White, Tara Darby, Leo Cackett, Lavinia Mirabella Illustrators Spencer Wilson, Andrew Rae, Peter Horridge Stylist/Make-up Johanna Dalemo Repro and Printing Printed by Boss Print on CarbonNeutral™ Revive Silk 75 (made from 75% Recycled Fibre) paper, using vegetable based inks and biodegradable Cellogreen® Laminate. This is fully recyclable.

Who will be the winners and losers in the

As you can see we have some burgeoning health marketplace? interesting thoughts on brands; 26 Q&A: Patrick Burgoyne what works, what doesn’t and We chat to Creative Review’s editor what should never have been tried Not Sure That’s in the28 first‘I’m place. If you do have Whatchallenge I Meant!’ a branding that you’d marketers get itlike so, so like toWhen discuss or if you’d uswrong to explore a new issue altogether, give us a call or send us an email, we’ll give you a fresh perspective, challenge your thinking and probably make you laugh as well.

32 Brand Dragonfly

Sense & Sustainability Dragon, 1 Craven Hill,

How Howies get it so, so right London, W2 3EN

T F E @

36 A Great Strategy… +44 (0)20 7262 4488 one thing, listen to Churchill +44…is (0)20 7262 but 6406 and keep your eyes on the end result dragonfly@dragonbrands.com www.dragonbrands.com 40 Ten Things... …that exist and really shouldn’t!

42 We Love… Brands rocking the Dragon team’s world right now

Written by

Tom Baizley Photos b

CONTENTS TO BE CONTINUED…

06 Upfront You heard it here first. Round-up of the latest marketing news

08 How Cool? Honda’s Robot ‘Asimo’ is coming on in leaps and bounds

10 Dubai Bigger, Harder, Faster, Stronger. Will the bubble ever burst?

12 Retrospective How drinks brand Ballantine’s keeps traditional yet fresh

14 Is the Craft of Branding Dying in Packaging? Does today’s creative process block the development of a strong brand idea? The time has come to get back to basics.

18 Brand Honesty How important is authenticity? We look at why brands need to keep it real

Dragon

Call us 22 Perfect State of Health Art Director Craig Brooks Managing Editor Kerry O’Connor

Who will be the winners and losers in the

32 Brand Dragonfly

Sense & Sustainability Dragon, 1 Craven Hill,

How Howies get it so, so right London, W2 3EN

T F E @

42 We Love… Brands rocking the Dragon team’s world right now

IntroductIons

Hello

Contributors

Keith Wells, Partner, Dragon From advertising Account Director and Planner to Landor’s Director of Corporate Identity, Keith joined Dragon 15 years ago. Since then he has been responsible for Dragon’s Business Brands offer, working across a wide range of industry sectors and clients including ACNielsen, egg, ICAEW, Osborne Clarke and Nakheel.

chris Barber, creative director, Dragon With over 15 years experience, Chris heads up the packaging design team. He started his career in Neville Brody’s studio and has worked at Ziggurat, Michael Peters and Identica. Chris has worked with clients including United Biscuits, Sara Lee and global drinks brands from the Pernod Ricard, Vin & Sprit, Diageo and Russian Standard portfolios.

stuart White Stuart Nicholas White likes eating. So far the likes of British Vogue, EMI, Virgin and The Scotsman have stopped him eating for long enough to take pictures for them. Last year David Morrissey covered his mouth for a month so that Stuart would shoot his first feature film.

ou only get one chance to make a first impression, so this is it. The first edition of Dragonfly. So, what kind of first impression do we want to make? A good read? Yes. Prompting a wry smile? Brilliant. Maybe even a belly laugh? Excellent. It’s all about making a connection, spurring a reaction. And if you want to respond to one or more of the articles then that would be a great result – whether it’s a suggestion, an opposing view or prompting a new line of enquiry. All good. Then beyond that, the ideal would be for you to say, ‘I’m looking at just that kind of thing now – can we talk?’ As you’ve probably worked out, there is a brand agency behind Dragonfly. But it’s not all about us. We’ve fielded opinion from beyond our walls, brought in talented contributors from well known titles and leading companies, so it’s not just the Dragon’s eye view – though you’ll find that in the mix too. We want to make Dragonfly into a regular event – probably twice a year – but a lot depends on how you feed back to us. So we’d like your honest views, comments or suggestions and if you’d like to be a contributor in the future, we’d love to hear from you, too. We want Dragonfly to grow and take on new life as we go along, as well as provoke new thoughts and conversations. Let us know what you think. And in the words of the song, let’s make first impressions into lasting impressions. Thanks and enjoy… Dragonfly team dragonfly@dragonbrands.com

tara darby Tara loves documenting people and places and regularly travels the globe shooting a multitude of subjects. Tara has worked for such titles as Another, Dazed and Confused, Vogue Pelle, GQ Style, The Wire, and The New York Times, as well as receiving commissions from Adidas, Nike, Timberland, Orange, T-Mobile, EMI and Polydor.

dragon

IntroductIons

Hello

Contributors

dragon

Upfront

Book

New Brands On The Block

Exit stage left: Innocent, Dorset Cereals and Gu. Enter stage right…?

Fast food chain Leon is one of Dragonfly’s ‘ones to watch’

Everything Must Logo

Word perfect

Brand new HeaVies

Every brand consultant and designer is guilty of it. Whether planned into the presentation or not, we reference them: the Innocents, Dorset Cereals and Gu’s of this world. On the radar, known, understood and loved by consumers – and a design shorthand for so much. But increasingly, market research groups indicate that consumers are on our case, with phrases like ‘that’s very Innocent’ or, ‘they’ve done a Gu’, now in the common parlance.

Making your Mark

But if that’s the case, who do Dragon predict will be on the brand consultants’ barometers in the year ahead? In a Mystic Meg moment, we predict that ‘niche, ethical, original’ will be the theme – think characterful, quirky, symbolic brands that break the mould and deliver strong ethical cues. So who are our ‘ones to watch’? Firstly: Ethical fast food chain Leon: Moderately retro, oozing authenticity and a sense of the good old days when food tasted like food, with recognisable seasons. Mix in some strong ‘authority’ cues – foodie and ‘sophis’ in equal measure with a sprinkling of Euro-ness. The result is quirky, individual and clearly a discovery brand. Next: Fresh and Wild founder Bryan Meehan’s skincare brand NUDE. Shying away from the earthy, ‘knit your own muesli’ cues, or ingredient-heavy labeling of other enviro-friendly beauty champions, this brand exudes 2008 eco-ness. Minimal, clean, utterly recyclable and economic with resources. And, last but not least: Organic produce delivery brand Abel and Cole, a familiar, genuine brand identity and design that neither surprises nor disappoints. Suitably artisan and earthy but classy and classic enough to ooze premium and authenticity.

The book Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands

Has branding gone too far?

Farmers used to mark their livestock with a hot iron, to make them stand out from the herd. Branding went on to be used on casks of wine and timber being shipped abroad to identify manufacturers; then logos and trademarks appeared and – fast-forward a few decades – customers, with cult-like loyalty, began to buy the brand rather than the product. It’s easy to see how the practice developed. But when everything and everyone now seems to be a brand, have we taken the concept too far? Up to a point, branding clearly works. For example, the equity of Puma’s leaping cat or

THE wRITER David Vinjamuri, a marketing professor at New York University and the founder of a marketing training company. He’s also former brand manager of Johnson & Johnson and Coca Cola, so knows his stuff. wHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? The stories of seven famous brands that were the result of ‘breaking the rules of marketing’, rather than years of planning, blood, sweat and tears.

A Matter of Opinion

Does Brand Beckham have the depth and last to overtake Adidas in brand league tables of the future?

AND THE POINT IS? Success ultimately comes from an ‘ability to be your own customer’. That apart, the book is simply a fascinating insight into brand building.

‘Hands up who likes the visuals for wizzo’s Salt ‘n’ Vinegar flavoured Sherbert Dips?’

Dragon

talking to the right people, and is it worth the outlay? ‘ Targeting groups on how they think and feel, rather than who they are, has its problems. These attitudinal groups change or move over time and don’t always fit into the traditional segmentation. It’s possible to find a segmentation that

quickly disappears or is superceded by events. There’s also the debate that advertising and marketing create the segment, and in fact, the person they want to target doesn’t actually exist. So where’s the truth? Between the extremes, as usual. This might be the time to look long and hard at your segmentation and how you use research.

Photo: Getty Images

Focusing on focus groups

Traditionally, focus groups have always been a requirement of everything from mascara launches to political campaigns. So much so, few in the industry questioned their value. Now recruiters are becoming hard-pressed to fit respondents into particular segments, leaving agencies wondering, ‘are we

How it’s done

Kids’ Stuff

Eat Natural has the perfect recipe for a winning brand

GIVE US AN ExAMPLE? Roxanne Quimby, who was living in a tent with her five-yearold twin daughters when she chanced upon Burt Shavitz, a beekeeper, who inspired the Burt’s Bees brand. Her empire also boasts Baby Einstein, The Art of Shaving and Columbia Sportswear brands.

Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands (Wiley, £13.99) is out now.

Viewpoint

Recruiting a kids’ taste panel - a stroke of genius and cost effective PR to boot

the Mac’s apple can’t be measured. Both are recognised the world over. But with schools, hospitals and libraries now being daubed with logos and pushed with ad campaigns, surely we have to question the concept? And then there’s the new phenomenon of ‘personal branding’. Richard Branson, Oprah, Madonna, Simon Cowell and the Beckhams are now all brands in their own right. And remember the headline when Tony Blair, responsible for creating a party brand, stepped down as PM? ‘Brand Blair is dead. Long live Brand Blair’. What a personal relaunch! But if you think it’s just for the rich and famous, or that, actually, you’re a person, not a theme park, a batch of self-help books will tell you otherwise. A quick search on Google produces titles such as: ‘The Brand Called You: The Ultimate Personal Branding Handbook to Transform Anyone into an Indispensable Brand’, and ‘How YOU are like Shampoo’. For more tips, you can attend ‘A Brand You’ personal branding summit. Even the Church of England recently revealed it was planting spies on pews to find out how people rate its Sunday congregations. And this year publisher Hodder & Stoughton’s scripture range is to be rebranded ‘Unreal’ to stand out from that herd, while bishops are churning out pages on Facebook. It’s probably not what ‘Brand God’ intended.

From supermarket to health store, garage forecourt to chic food hall, Eat Natural’s quiet invasion started from modest roots. Here’s their brand-building template; (1) Keep it simple with pure and natural, low-key branding that screams authenticity and a name that has Ronseal-esque directness. (2) Ride the crest of current public concerns such as the obesity crisis; kids eating trash; food allergies and ingredient integrity. (3) Have a human-interest

story: the two-man band gave up well paid jobs and have a passion and commitment behind a great idea. (4) Make the big boys come to you: launch where you have contacts and strength (in this case through the independent sector, CTNs and healthfood stores) and be seen in the right places – the Planet Organics, Harvey Nichols and Holland and Barratts of the world. (5) Go international, get scale. Let the supermarkets come to you.

(6) Keep variety and engagement alive: From seasonal specials, to Kid Chef panels, to ‘what makes you feel good?’ web pages, to a regular innovation stream; keep it fresh and original. And finally, never let standards slip: from sticking to their original premise of quality ‘store cupboard’ ingredients, to maintaining a price premium; to being ‘virtually hand made’ (despite making 100,000 daily), there’s quality and pride in everything they do.

Money Matters

An Eye on recession

Marketers must hold their nerve in a failing economy

Are we entering a recession? If so, marketers will suffer more than most. Advertising budgets took bigger cuts in the final quarter of 2007 than at any time in two years, according to the latest Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Bellwether report. It also found marketing budgets were revised down as companies tightened their belts. In an insecure economy, companies have to fight even harder to acquire the customer: brand building, pulling on the strength of the brand, searching for new

ways to communicate value proposition and demonstrating stability is more important than ever. Not cutting spend. Investing in brand equity wins out in the end. And not all are hit hard in a recession. Luxury brands survive well, as do economy goods. Alcohol, chocolate and healthcare shares historically go up in a recession and supermarkets like Tesco continue to do well. Other predicted growth categories? Pet care and utilities. For others, we can only speculate, but hold your nerve.

Dragon

Upfront

Book

New Brands On The Block

Exit stage left: Innocent, Dorset Cereals and Gu. Enter stage right…?

Fast food chain Leon is one of Dragonfly’s ‘ones to watch’

Everything Must Logo

Word perfect

Brand new HeaVies

Making your Mark

The book Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands

Has branding gone too far?

A Matter of Opinion

Does Brand Beckham have the depth and last to overtake Adidas in brand league tables of the future?

AND THE POINT IS? Success ultimately comes from an ‘ability to be your own customer’. That apart, the book is simply a fascinating insight into brand building.

‘Hands up who likes the visuals for wizzo’s Salt ‘n’ Vinegar flavoured Sherbert Dips?’

Dragon

Photo: Getty Images

Focusing on focus groups

How it’s done

Kids’ Stuff

Eat Natural has the perfect recipe for a winning brand

Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands (Wiley, £13.99) is out now.

Viewpoint

Recruiting a kids’ taste panel - a stroke of genius and cost effective PR to boot

Money Matters

An Eye on recession

Marketers must hold their nerve in a failing economy

Dragon

Written by Lee turner photos supplied by Honda

Cool

HoW Cool?

Honda Asimo is not up for sale… …yet!

Upfront

Move over Mickey. Meet Asmio, the world’s first walking, talking, tennis-playing ‘bot

Dragon

reality check

Happy punters

Show You Care

Smart brands need to ‘engage and empower’

The rise of The machine Cool is a word that needs to be constantly on the move because our lifestyles are so fast-paced. Pause for even a moment and you’re in danger of lapsing into un-cool. To stay ahead of the game, we have to keep a sharp eye on those at the top of the creative pecking order.

I’ll get a tall skinny latte with a mellow dinner jazz Starbucks mix download to go please

Once upon a time you bought coffee. Then you bought coffee in a cup. Then came Starbucks, and suddenly we weren’t buying coffee so much as buying the ‘experience’. We now inhabit a ‘service’ culture and it’s these ‘experiences’ that count with consumers. With an estimated 4,000 messages thrown at each consumer every day, it’s not surprising that the brand isn’t winning them over anymore. We’re vying for their attention in a way we’ve never had to before. It’s been reported that nearly half of the US online population express their thoughts on their brand experiences on a daily basis, whether good or bad. A leading marketer rightly predicted for 2007 that ‘the brands that not only engage but also empower will be the brands that break away from the competition.’ There are plenty of examples of brands already doing this well. There’s Hipp Organic baby food, who’ve created a customer community online (customer thinks ‘they understand my needs’); BMW who offer car training courses, even if you don’t drive their cars ‘they’re sharing information with me’; First Direct, who never keep you waiting on the line (they respect my busy life). It’s about meaningful benefit, as well as genuinely tapping into what makes your customer so happy they’ll tell other people and bring that brand to life. So, what’s going to be your empowering strategy for 2008?

Second Life: a viable market place? Second Life, the online community that shot to notoriety in 2007, has been a recent attraction to major global brands as they seek to test new product ideas with inhabitants, thus widening their reputation and profile with early adopters. But whilst this virtual civilisation might represent a cheap and far-reaching research platform, how can marketers be sure of the validity of the data they receive? Surely the very reason these communities exist is to allow civilians to be the very thing that they are not in normal life? As brands such as Adidas, Toyota and Starbucks move in, there are many others waiting to find out if this perceived new marketing landscape really is the next big thing. So what’s the attraction of Second Life? It might be a virtual civilisation, but is all the data virtual? Are all decisions virtual? where’s the benefit in that? Does Coke become the Virtual Thing? Does the Emperor wear virtual clothes? Meanwhile, back in the real world…

But seriousLy...

Illustration by Andrew Rae Photo: Getty Images

DigiTal cool The fastest-paced developments are in the arena of digital innovation. Visions of the future have always captured our imaginations and we’re wising up to the idea that if we, the consumers, desire it enough, the future needs only be just around the corner. It’s the fine line between science fiction and science fact that we, as a digital-hungry consumer, crave the most. Consumer spending has, in the past 30 years, fuelled this. we embrace each new gadget that appears on the market, making yesterday’s must-have gizmo obsolete almost overnight. Ownership of the latest piece of cool kit is not only a display of wealth, but shows we’re technologically savvy, a wired-in pioneer, not a high street follower. when Honda revealed ASIMO, the first humanoid robot, the world was blown away by its display of technological achievement. Up until that point the idea of a robot walking up a flight of stairs was considered an impossibility. Suddenly the old cool – cumbersome robots performing boring, pointless tasks – was all forgotten as we gazed in wonder at the surreal articulation of our very first walking, running, tennis playing humanoid robot. But where is it all leading? The robot has been portrayed as both our friend and our enemy in all manner of creative media. It’s the ultimate sciencefiction dream of intelligent humanoid technology, interacting with us on a daily basis. And there’s a distinct possibility that, in the not-so-distant future, every home will have one. For now the Robot remains one of the coolest icons of science fiction. How will it evolve?

VirtuaL worLds

Dragon

Written by Lee turner photos supplied by Honda

Cool

HoW Cool?

Honda Asimo is not up for sale… …yet!

Upfront

Move over Mickey. Meet Asmio, the world’s first walking, talking, tennis-playing ‘bot

Dragon

reality check

Happy punters

Show You Care

Smart brands need to ‘engage and empower’

I’ll get a tall skinny latte with a mellow dinner jazz Starbucks mix download to go please

But seriousLy...

Illustration by Andrew Rae Photo: Getty Images

VirtuaL worLds

Dragon

Written by Keith Wells

Upfront

And nobody wanting to live or do business there can escape them. You can call it hypocrisy, you can call it a challenge, or you can shrug and just accept it. The truth of it is, Dubai does pose serious questions about what individuals and organisations want and are prepared to accept. On one level, the sheer pace of development creates its own tensions. There often is no time to consider things properly – you have to be happy to go with a gut feeling or a subjective steer. And because of that, it’s always possible that people will change their minds. And the scale of the change bears no relevance . If it’s not right any more, it won’t go any further – ‘tough, deal with it, move on or we’ll find someone who will’. On the social level, there are other issues. Dubai is a Muslim state, in which religion is of fundamental importance to many of its citizens, and yet there is alcohol and prostitution, just like in any ‘western’ market. Women wear Jimmy Choos, Bulgari and D&G under their abayas. Many people believe Dubai is a bubble waiting to burst. They point to the fact that while many villas and apartments have been sold, very few of them are actually lived in. All of these developments have been snapped up by agents and bulk buyers, who will then take them through to the secondary market – so Dubai is not really a lived-in location. It’s a secondary market, second home, Second Life kind of place. Very few interior lights are switched on in the evenings, though it’s fair to say that most of the apartments and villas haven’t been completed yet. It’s a futures market in more ways than one. Dubai knows that its growth is putting it into the spotlight more and more on wider or deeper issues. But is it managing those areas of its reputation well? Again, it’s mixed. The two biggest questions asked are its environmental practices and its human rights record with regard to the manual and construction workers who are making the Sheikhs’ vision come true.

Desert storm

An Eye on Dubai

The most powerful city in the world just got more interesting

It claims to be the world’s fastest-growing city. It has defied ‘normal logic’ in its development to date. It’s where ‘things get done’. But it’s not without its challenges and difficulties. For anyone looking to be a part of the Dubai phenomenon, it’s time for a proper look at what’s going on. BIG VISION, BIG cLAIMS There is nothing sheepish about Dubai. Not more than 30 years ago, it was a remote Arab settlement, based around a creek where men dived for pearls, and traded their wares. It is still a tribal society, but has been brought closer together through the vision of the late Sheikh Rashid al Maktoum. He wanted to create a higher level of prosperity for his people, launched an ambitious programme of commercialisation and growth, which has been sharpened and taken to new heights by the current ruler, Sheikh Mohammed. Of course, it helped that oil was found there in the 1960s. But revenues from that resource

Dragon

are already less than 6% of the economy – and some projections say that it will run out around 2016. So Dubai has always had bigger things in mind. And ‘big’ means big. You can’t read a newspaper article without tripping over claims, measures and comparisons that are set in a global context: the world’s tallest residential building, the world’s largest airport, the world’s biggest water tanks, and so on. Easy to scoff, not easy to live up to, but the ambition is there. In January, the company behind Palm Jumeirah and The World announced a new project. What could possibly follow The World? The Universe, of course. No place for modesty, this. GET IT dONE Sheikh Mohammed said, “Build, and they will come.” And, so far, he’s been proved right. Fivestar hotels are everywhere, and full; shopping malls are enormous, and full; villas and apartment complexes are planned for the next 10-15 years, and fully sold. So, when Dubai says something will happen, it tends to happen.

That’s not without its strains, as people work incredibly hard and often without the support systems they might expect. But on a macro scale it’s possible to see the effects of such a celebration of pace. Infrastructure, both social and institutional, sometimes just isn’t joined up – the insistence on getting things done leads inevitably to a project focus and a silo mentality, even within the same organisations. Times, commitments and plans can be moved and changed without warning. Which can be exhilarating or sanity-threatening. It makes a mockery of much of what we might have grown up with, in terms of marketing planning ‘best practice,’ but speed is of the essence. Dubai is in a rush, and the more it confounds logic in the speed at which things get done, the more ‘justification’ it has for believing that its way is the right way. And so the cycle continues. LIVING wITh cONTRAdIcTIONS Dubai couldn’t have got to where it is today without managing apparent contradictions.

Photo: Nakheel

Above: the Sim-City style Palm Deira, which will dwarf its Palm Jumeirah and Jebel Ali siblings. Left: Dubai circa 1980. A lone skyscraper punctuates the skyline.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Dubai has the largest carbon footprint per capita in the world. Its population growth, construction drive and use of resources have all contributed. It is, after all, a desert location – and maybe the desert wasn’t meant for cars, tower blocks, and lots of people who all need air-conditioning to function properly. And, the more people who come here, the greater their consumption on all fronts. But Dubai is also looking more closely at true sustainability issues and responses than many other parts of the world. Some of the best brains in the business are being engaged now in eco-city development, at the same

time that developers are eager to talk about the new biggest/tallest/fastest whatever. It is a contradiction, but one of which Dubai’s leaders are acutely aware. If they show the same determination to solve these types of issues, as they did in getting this far, who’s to say they won’t confound expectations again? Workers’ rights are another issue Dubai has to get right. Companies are beginning to respond to the accusations (in many cases, completely justified) of mistreatment. The migrant workers who build these developments, often literally around the clock, work 10-hour shifts, 6 days a week, for less than £100 per month. Many have to surrender their passports to their employers on arrival, and sleep 6-8 to a room (because the companies are usually charged for workforce accommodation on a ‘per room’ basis, rather than a ‘per bed’). But again, the more enlightened companies are changing that – because they have to, but also because they want to. INTERESTING TIMES Dubai has come a long way in no time at all. But now is possibly the most interesting time in its modern history, because as a result of its success it is now being asked to face some serious questions. There is a reassessment going on, and with that a rebalancing. For anyone wishing to work or live there, these have profound implications. Across the UAE, there is a determination to bring its origins into greater prominence. Arabic, it has recently been announced, should become the prime language. New legislation has decreed that all senior HR roles should be filled by locals, and many believe that this will extend to other areas of business. The ‘tax free’ appeal of Dubai is undermined by inflation rates that feel like an icy blast from the UK’s past (some people estimate this at 20% year-onyear) and by the difficulties in buying property. Is the gravy train coming to an end? Probably not. Is the bubble going to burst? Never bet against Dubai. Is life going to be different? Certainly. The Gulf region, and the Middle East in general, will continue to grow as a global force, and companies, brands, marketing will have to recognise that dynamic. But it will probably never fit into the ‘globalisation’ models that many of us have grown used to – there are real cultural differences, which demand to be taken seriously. Dubai won’t accept forever the idea of being a ‘client service’ location, while the best strategic and creative minds stay in other parts of the world. But nobody should think for a second that simply imposing ‘our’ ways on the Dubai market will replicate the success we all think we’ve enjoyed. Dubai is different, wants to be different, and needs to be thought about differently. If you love Dubai, Dubai will love you.

5 facts about…

Dubai 1. The material used in creating the Palm Jumeirah would create a wall 2 metres high and half a metre wide, that would circle the globe three times 2. Dubai’s population grew by 7.6% between 2005 and 2006 (officially) but is predicted to swell by over 75% by 2010 3. The modern Emirate of Dubai was created, as a result of the United Arab Emirates, in 1971. But it has been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty since 1833 4.Dubai is not simply an oil and gas story. Revenues from those resources now account for less than 6% of the Emirate’s GDP 5. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum set out his vision for Dubai in a strategy paper called ‘Dubai – where the future begins’. First announced in February 2007, it sets out a path to 2015 – and is available for reading on the official Government website

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai

Palm Jumeirah

Dragon

Written by Keith Wells

Upfront

Desert storm

An Eye on Dubai

The most powerful city in the world just got more interesting

Dragon

Photo: Nakheel

Above: the Sim-City style Palm Deira, which will dwarf its Palm Jumeirah and Jebel Ali siblings. Left: Dubai circa 1980. A lone skyscraper punctuates the skyline.

5 facts about…

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai

Palm Jumeirah

Dragon

RetRospectiv e

Retrospective:

Ballantine’s The brand’s founder, George Ballantine, was a man who understood the value of tradition and continuity, of leaving a legacy upon which others could build. Subsequent generations have done just that – both in the blending of the whisky and in the development of the drink’s identity. Established in 1827, awarded a Royal Warrant in 1895, Ballantine’s is now the world’s number two Scotch whisky brand and part of the Pernod Ricard portfolio.

From 19th-century grocer’s vision to 21st-century global brand. We look at how Ballantine’s image has evolved over time yet still remains faithful to its heritage

Written by nina Cooper

5 Classic lines The original 12-year-old, launched in1960. 6 The GBS Seal A mark of distinction for off-pack communication.

7 Shine on The new packaging achieves stand-out with a UV varnish for an unexpected glow.

2 8

RETROSPECTIVE: bRIng ThESE baCk PlEaSE

the ‘splayd’

The only way to eat your egg and chips, surely?

Dragon

2 Great expectations From early days the Ballantine’s brand was global in ambition. 3 High five The Ballantine’s range of blends. 4 Sandy Hyslop Master blender – there have been only five in over 180 years.

8 Ballantine’s Finest Cornerstone of the range and 100 years old in 2010.

Photo: Pernod Ricard

1 Ballantine’s today The 12-year-old blend is the long-term brand builder. Dragon’s new design introduced a stronger, masculine bottle shape, a crisp split label and the silver GBS coin – a hallmark of distilling expertise. Each element was hand crafted.

Who needs three utensils when this nifty little number will do the job in one?

The Splayd! An idea ahead of its time – and only something that the Australian nation (who really understand the value of stand-up BBQ eating) could have stumbled upon. For the uninitiated, the Splayd is an ingenious fork-cum-spooncum-knife, a handy all in one stainless steel utensil. Its name cunningly combines the words Spoon with Blade – geddit? It rocked 70s Britain and found a natural home alongside other such classics as the Echo Hostess and the Teasmaid. So why has its time come again? Simple. Firstly, we’re in the age of the TV dinner, where the Splayd nobly enables the user to spoon ready meal into their gawping mouth while keeping a firm grip on the remote control. Secondly, we’re deskilling and raising a generation unable to grasp the fundamentals of knife-and-fork dining: the Splayd only really requires you to know where your mouth is. Thirdly, (for the time-starved multi-taskers amongst us), why not embrace a utensil which enables you to eat a full roast while emailing on your Blackberry? And finally, with sustainability rarely off our radars, what could be kinder on the environment than a Splayd? When it comes to washing up it uses a third of the detergent and water of the – let’s face it, frankly dull – knife, fork and spoon triumvirate. It’s an eco-friendly no brainer!

Dragon

RetRospectiv e

Retrospective:

From 19th-century grocer’s vision to 21st-century global brand. We look at how Ballantine’s image has evolved over time yet still remains faithful to its heritage

Written by nina Cooper

5 Classic lines The original 12-year-old, launched in1960. 6 The GBS Seal A mark of distinction for off-pack communication.

7 Shine on The new packaging achieves stand-out with a UV varnish for an unexpected glow.

2 8

RETROSPECTIVE: bRIng ThESE baCk PlEaSE

the ‘splayd’

The only way to eat your egg and chips, surely?

Dragon

8 Ballantine’s Finest Cornerstone of the range and 100 years old in 2010.

Photo: Pernod Ricard

Who needs three utensils when this nifty little number will do the job in one?

Dragon

Written by chris Barber artwork by Dragon Team*

Put down your Mac and reignite your creativity! Chris Barber asks his fellow designers to go back to basics and the core crafts of typography, illustration and inconography The freshness of auThenTiciTy According to senior brand manager Jane Yelloly, “Ballantine’s has always held craftsmanship as a core value because of the brand’s rich heritage and authenticity. True artisan design skills were important to us in the redesign of the Ballantine’s 12-year-old packaging. Our challenge was not about inventing a load of new logos from scratch, but about looking at the most powerful existing graphic equities and reinventing them through clever crafting. The result? Something fresh that balances tradition with contemporary sophistication. The conclusion? Craftmanship in design can rejuvenate the brand look.”

Dragon

ander down the high street, surf the net, browse the supermarket shelves, open your mail in the morning and you may start to feel underwhelmed by what you see. Amid all the consumer choice, there’s actually none. Everything’s slick, but not much stimulates. The spark has gone out. Technology has taken over designing the world we live in. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a great admirer of the Apple, which has become the design industry standard. It’s a wonderful thing – easy to use and beautiful to behold. What more could any of us want? But there’s a worrying worm at the core – and that’s not the fault of the good people at Apple – it’s ours, the designers. Now that we can put together a page or a pack much faster and easier than ever before, we’re losing the craft of creativity. That’s bad news for us – and even worse news for brands. So where has it all gone awry? Execution before ideas: true design starts with an idea that expresses what the brand stands for in a different and individual way. But too often today, with a mouse in their hands and a deadline on their mind, for many designers, the journey of discovery starts with Getty Images™ and ends with Photoshop™. The important

Computer vs Craft

stage of creative exploration is cut out in favour of getting straight into the execution. What’s available, not what’s unique With fonts readily available with a search and a click, the craft of typography is becoming a rarity. Setting typography was once an art form in itself, but now few designers understand the rules. Creating logotypes by hand educates the eye on how to compose and balance letterforms correctly and gives the designer the confidence to style and define unique solutions. Working with Geoff Halpin in the early stages of my career was an education in its own right. Every graphic identity was a painstaking quest in search of originality. Every designer should at least have experienced the buzz of that quest. Speed above all With clients themselves under pressure, speed (and cost) take over and, if we, as designers, fail to demonstrate the value of a craft approach, not just for luxury brands, but for mainstream ones too, we will become a commodity business – and deserve it. Anyone can do it We’re in the age of ‘user generated content’ – and it’s having an impact way beyond the world of design. Certainly, with readily available tools as standard on Mac and PC, everyone can be a designer now. And for those who want to be that little bit more sophisticated, there are plenty of courses advertised, claiming to provide design qualifications in just four weeks. That’s great for a family website. But for a brand in which millions are invested and which needs to make a special connection with the consumer, the bar is much higher. In the battle for business, if we adopt essentially the same tools and techniques as the enthusiastic amateur, just with a little more experience and finesse, then we’re complicit in the myth that design is just about the right software and we devalue our craft.

*Collection of early pencil exploration for Dragon clients

Computer vs Craft

Dragon

Written by chris Barber artwork by Dragon Team*

Dragon

Computer vs Craft

*Collection of early pencil exploration for Dragon clients

Computer vs Craft

Dragon

Computer vs Craft

1 Coca-Cola Interestingly, this latest iteration of the packaging involves no fuss or graphic tricks, just the power of the original, handcrafted identity. A timeless classic.

how The crafT of Design can empower The BranD Roustam Tariko, the founder and president of Russian Standard Vodka, tells Dragonfly: “When launching Russian Standard Vodka, our goal was to create a design that would stand out from the thousands of bottles in the world. Once the concept was defined, we started concentrating on crafted details that, added together, would define the overall design. We developed a font for Russian Standard that didn’t exist before. We harmonised a unique label and bottle shape to evoke our Russian heritage. And we chose colours that went against conventional marketing wisdom: instead of big and flashy, we went for silver, platinum: elegant. I am proud that the logo was crafted by hand through a rigorous process, and I believe that is the reason it is so successful today. In fact, about three years after we launched, I decided to try to refine the logo. We spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to do so. In the end, I was not able to make a design better than the original. Crafted design is at the heart of Russian Standard. A few years ago, I saw that competition was catching up with us in terms of the beauty of its bottles. So again we turned to a craftsmanship approach. Many small and beautiful details were introduced to our packaging, and it worked. We’re still far ahead of the competition. Nobody has caught up. We continue to have great faith in craftsmanship. Even now, we have a half dozen projects underway to upgrade the product image – from enhancing existing packaging to designing new brands. Russian Standard is a fully hand-crafted product, from our production process to our design.”

2 Johnnie Walker Reinventing the identity from a dusty traditional illustration to this dynamic contemporary icon was a stroke of genius. A great idea inspired by the paintbrush. 3 Belazu At first glance is an olive tree. On closer inspection it’s a hand proudly holding aloft the perfect olive.Uncompromised detail beautifully executed.

“It’s time to put down the mouse and pick up the pencil!”

Russian Standard Vodka is the global leader in authentic Russian premium vodka. The company’s portfolio dominates the premium segment in Russia with a 60% market share and sales of over 1.9m cases per year in Russia, and 49 export markets across Europe, the US and Asia. Standard Vodka was ranked the 4th fastest growing premium spirits brand in the world in 2007 by IMPACT, the authoritative beverage industry publication. www.russianstandard.com Dragon’s Chris Barber created the Russian Standard Brand

So far, so sad. But does it really matter – other than to me, of course, and others who have trained hard and are touched by the magic of creating original design? Well, yes it does. The consumer is becoming impervious to the endless babble of ads, banners, blogs, virals, pop-ups, shelf wobblers, BOGOFs, direct mail, and email. They need to be touched, inspired, fascinated, amused. Design – brilliant design, beautiful design, bold, entertaining, lovable design, shocking, sharp, unexpected design can strike a chord, hit a nerve, whet the appetite and make a connection like nothing else. But only if we care and if we craft. What’s the solution? Well my starters would be these: For us designers, put down the mouse and pick up the pencil. Every new brief should be treated as an adventure, a journey into the unknown, a tireless,

Dragon

nerve-tingling quest for that ‘Eureka’ moment. Don’t start implementing until you have the idea. I remember well a lecture I attended a few years ago, where Bob Gill talked passionately about his subject. He agreed that ideas are often found by accident and experimentation. Exploration through different mediums – paint, pencil, collage, photography, and stencils – inspires unexpected results. For all of us in the industry, nurture quality and real craft training in the next generation of young designers. We have to make sure that no one comes out of design college without having real knowledge of the core crafts of typography, illustration, iconography. Lock up the Macs until they have. For clients – a plea. Good design stands the test of time and is worth the investment – in time as much as money. There are no shortcuts. Allow us to craft and explore and we will create you something unique.

Dragon

Computer vs Craft

1 Coca-Cola Interestingly, this latest iteration of the packaging involves no fuss or graphic tricks, just the power of the original, handcrafted identity. A timeless classic.

“It’s time to put down the mouse and pick up the pencil!”

Dragon

BRAND HONESTY

“Mmm, Brand Honesty, How Refreshing!” In a world of falsehoods and fabrications, authenticity is always the best policy Photography by Stuart White

“A refreshing new drink from the London basin”

Sultry Spanish actress Penélope Cruz flutters a pair of voluminous eyelashes and gives viewers not just the eye but the idea that L’Oreal Paris Telescopic Mascara, could make theirs this seductive too. But the lashes she was sporting in an ad campaign last year were exposed as false and the deception winked at the brand’s dishonesty. There is a general acceptance that publicity photography is heavily retouched but this particular flirtation with the truth was seen as a step too far and the brand was forced to publicly admit the con. The Trade Descriptions Act and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have been set in place to deter such creative suspensions of disbelief but it doesn’t stop some having a stretch in the name of marketing. Dishonesty can range from asking consumers to believe an unlikely premise, to blatant flaunting of brand promises. McDonald’s are now trading in salads and offering customers reproductions of Scandinavian designer classics on which to park their rumps. These sleeker, café-style environments are a bid to take the burger chain more upmarket, but seem a less-than-honest representation of the McDonald’s brand. Its menu is still lacking in the sophistication necessary to let it

claim a healthy or foodie space and its reputation for unhealthy fast-food delivered with a fairly low-quality of service endures. Changing the way consumers think of a brand is challenging when the product or service has been tarnished. The latest ad campaign for the Post Office uses well known celebrities and the tune of The Land of Hope and Glory in an attempt to convince consumers of its status as a national institution. Aside from the reputational damage and bad will that the brand has acquired from a series of wildcat strikes, government plans are afoot to close 2,500 branches by 2009. Believability is a moot point amidst the jingoism. Society is savvy, cynical and more litigious than ever. Rather than be deliberately economical with the truth or wilfully misleading, many brands choose to add a healthy dose of spin to their promise. Capitalising on the trend for healthy eating, Pret A Manger peppers communications with words like natural and fresh to give a connotation of healthiness rather than giving any concrete promises of low fat or organic ingredients. And, as awareness of the dangers of global warming grow, so brands feel a need to highlight their green

Dragon

BRAND HONESTY

“Mmm, Brand Honesty, How Refreshing!” In a world of falsehoods and fabrications, authenticity is always the best policy Photography by Stuart White

“A refreshing new drink from the London basin”

Dragon

BRAND HONESTY

FAV ES

2 mcdonald’s makeover The new decor may feel fresher, but it won’t make your Big Mac any better for you

Favourite Brands of Teenagers What ever happened to the generation gap? No need for the ‘Pepsi challenge’, it’s a clear winner with British teens. 20% chose Pepsi as their favourite drink.

Over 100 million sets sold in 121 countries and in 29 languages makes Scrabble the world’s bestselling word game – and the top game with 30% of our teens.

1 the lynx effect More palatable pits? Perhaps. Utterly irresistible animal magnetism? Dream on....

Pe ps i

“Tap into the real taste of water”

Wii is the bestselling console in the world and our sample thinks it’s pretty cool too with 30% voting it their favourite entertainment system.

Written by Maeve Hosea. Hair and Make-up by Johanna Dalemo. Clothes supplied by De Keyser Fashions Ltd

The store that came top of the ‘Cool Brands’ league table also got the thumbs up from our teenage fashionistas. 12% voted for Top Shop as their favourite clothes shop.

with less than chaste fast food giant McDonald’s. But, as its success shows, consumers don’t always demand too much. Innocent’s playfulness of language, Astroturf™ coated vans and annual almost free music festivals suggest guileless charm and innocence, which for many is enough. Deodorant Lynx is clearly overpromising: If you’re a 16-year-old spotty boy applying fragrance in a bathroom, you’re not going to be suddenly found irresistible to a supermodel. But, Lynx, the number one-selling brand in its category, gets away with the fabrication. Its emotional and entertaining approach forms an unspoken clause in the contract. The ads show a fictional situation, which, although not true, is authentic to the brand. Brands work when they’re authentic. And switched-on consumers, plugged into a world of social networks and blogs, see through superficial and superlative claims. Forget the airbrushing and inflation; turning heads comes from surprising and delighting with communication, service and delivery – Because you’re worth it!

credentials even when they can’t back them up. In the past year, criticism has been upheld by the ASA, at a number of brands for misleading consumers. For example, Tesco claimed, at its Bangor store, that produce was locally sourced when it wasn’t, and Lexus claimed in an SUV model advertisement that it had ‘low emissions’ and ‘zero guilt’, erroneously suggesting little or no environmental impact. Chevrolet is in such a hurry to reap the rewards of the great green rush that it is spending hundreds of thousands advertising cars that consumers cannot buy: the car marque has been featuring its electric-powered Volt in adverts about its fuel-efficient range of vehicles – only the Volt is not even in production, but is still at the concept stage and the electric motor it is to use has not yet been perfected. Full of light-hearted pleasantries geared to engage consumers on an emotional level, fruit smoothie maker Innocent has a lot to live up to in its name. While it doesn’t have any additives and it makes efforts with recyclable packaging, it isn’t organic, it isn’t Fairtrade and it has a partnership

r Sc

How to demonstrate your brand’s honesty Being an honest brand means more than just keeping on the right side of the ASA 20

Dragon

1 Know what counts If you know what matters to your consumers, communicate it strongly and deliver on it consistently. As Innocent have found, they’ll accept you’re not perfect on everything.

2 actions speaK louder than words At least in the long term. Make sure you know the importance of living up to your claims right the way through the supply chain and that your employees know the value you put on your brand’s honesty.

3 Keep it simple Keep your product or service claims and the language you use straightforward. The discipline of simplifying what your brand is all about will make your communications more compelling as well as more honest.

4 Follow your own path As it is with people, so it is with brands, you’re more honest and trustworthy if you hold true to your values and don’t try and follow the crowd or chase the latest bandwagon (even if it’s an ethical one).

5 don’t abandon Fun, wit, humour and creativity Honesty doesn’t have to mean dull earnestness. Aspiration and a little bit of fantasy are part of what brands are all about and consumers are savvy to this.

Photo: Getty Images, Lavinia Mirabella

keeping it real: 5 honeSt tipS

Half a century old, but NME is still rocking young music fans – 15% of our sample said NME was their top mag, proving that oldies can still be gold.

NME

The ‘swoosh’ has been around since the early 1970s and it’s as popular as ever – 20% voted Nike their favourite fashion brand.

N ik

e Dragon

BRAND HONESTY

FAV ES

2 mcdonald’s makeover The new decor may feel fresher, but it won’t make your Big Mac any better for you

Favourite Brands of Teenagers What ever happened to the generation gap? No need for the ‘Pepsi challenge’, it’s a clear winner with British teens. 20% chose Pepsi as their favourite drink.

Over 100 million sets sold in 121 countries and in 29 languages makes Scrabble the world’s bestselling word game – and the top game with 30% of our teens.

1 the lynx effect More palatable pits? Perhaps. Utterly irresistible animal magnetism? Dream on....

Pe ps i

“Tap into the real taste of water”

Wii is the bestselling console in the world and our sample thinks it’s pretty cool too with 30% voting it their favourite entertainment system.

Written by Maeve Hosea. Hair and Make-up by Johanna Dalemo. Clothes supplied by De Keyser Fashions Ltd

The store that came top of the ‘Cool Brands’ league table also got the thumbs up from our teenage fashionistas. 12% voted for Top Shop as their favourite clothes shop.

r Sc

How to demonstrate your brand’s honesty Being an honest brand means more than just keeping on the right side of the ASA 20

Dragon

1 Know what counts If you know what matters to your consumers, communicate it strongly and deliver on it consistently. As Innocent have found, they’ll accept you’re not perfect on everything.

Photo: Getty Images, Lavinia Mirabella

keeping it real: 5 honeSt tipS

Half a century old, but NME is still rocking young music fans – 15% of our sample said NME was their top mag, proving that oldies can still be gold.

NME

The ‘swoosh’ has been around since the early 1970s and it’s as popular as ever – 20% voted Nike their favourite fashion brand.

N ik

e Dragon

functional fooDs

A Perfect State of Health? January 2010 marks a legislative watershed for the burgeoning functional foods marketplace. Who will be the winners and losers, who will speak up and who will be made to stand down? And will our supermarkets look more akin to a naturopath than a grocery retailer in years to come?

Artwork by Dragon Team

Written by Kate Waddell

Dragon

rebiotic bread, smart eggs, cholesterol-lowering yellow fats. If you think you’ve seen all there is to see in the functional foods market then you probably haven’t seen low GI pickle ice pops, weight-loss water or wrinkle-reducing marshmallows (we kid you not). So has the world gone mad, or, in the multi-tasking frenzy of modern life, is there still a role for more and more health-enhancing, life-facilitating functional foods? Have they passed the tipping point into mainstream? Or is it a case of ‘enough already?’ To give one example, 2007 saw a steep decline in functional yellow fats, a progenitor of the category. In parallel, the huge push in the functional drinks arena has been matched by an equal attrition of old brands and failure of new entrants. And recent Dragon research shows an early waning of the belief in, and appeal of, these miracle foods. So, what do we predict will be the big growth areas in the years ahead? What categories will come a cropper when EU health claims restrictions hit in early 2010? What will be the effect on the USPs and benefits promised when the law, rather than the consumer, judges what does and doesn’t really do the job it claims? Looking through this lens, it becomes easier to separate the men from the boys, the credible from the incredible, the sublime from the ridiculous. Here’s what we predict will be the winning themes as we march towards the 2010 horizon. Satiety productS As men and women continue the quest for the perfect healthy body in the face of continuous temptation, we predict that this area will be a big winner. Simpler science, a more measurable

benefit and, if we’re honest, playing to old wisdom that decrees that something more substantial and filling keeps you going for longer. So expect to see brands like Bounce (protein balls), Slimfast Hunger Shot (fibre and protein health drinks) or Nestea’s Enviga (calorie-burning green tea drink) flourish in the coming months. Heart and circulatory HealtH There’s increasing evidence of classic healthcare merging with classic consumer goods products. So expect a growth in cardio-vascular functional actives, with many products deriving their healthgiving properties from nature rather than the laboratory. From Sirco juices with Freeflow bloodthinning, thrombosis-reducing tomato extract to Nestlé Omega Plus milk with essential fatty acids, enabling good cardiovascular function. digeStive HealtH In many ways one of the categories that gave functional foods credibility, bringing the language of ‘friendly bacteria’ into common parlance. Claims are likely to extend beyond immuneboosting functions through to lessening ‘stressed’ stomachs or even reducing the frequency of ENT infections. Brands like ProViva Active sports drink and Gefilus Max are making the transition from plain old probiotic claims to a raft of new benefits. But a word of caution. There appears to be a ‘believability breaking point’ where multi-function claims start to unravel a brand’s credibility. coSmetic HealtH A contentious area and one with very broad scope, but also one that seems to be the buzz area of the moment. From skin-enhancing drinks to collagen-boosting foods, to simple weight-loss accelerating products. They have all the cosmetics world’s power of ‘hope in a bottle’. But the winners here will quite simply

Dragon

functional fooDs

Artwork by Dragon Team

Written by Kate Waddell

Dragon

JuicY cultuRE

functional fooDs

need to be able to prove their worth. And with 2010 regulations on the horizon, the pressure will never have been greater to prove effect, or be removed from shelf. The winners could be the anti-comedogenic products, with pore clearing, skin calming properties. Others are likely to be the anti-oxidant brigade – with products like Danone’s Essensis with Omega, green tea and skin-friendly vitamins, helping to slow skin cell water loss. And in the world of miracle weight loss, we must never underestimate the power of products that can accelerate that goal. Contrex in France was an early success, presented as ‘Your slimming partner’ – and with the word on the street that weight loss is only sips away, this brand has sold like the proverbial hot cake. But there are some simple indicators emerging that suggest some brands get it badly wrong, regardless of whether they can justify their claim.

Smoothie Operator

Anti-arthritic cornflakes. Will the future see a blurring of classical healthcare boundaries and RX merging with FMCG?

In a market crammed to bursting with fruity pretenders to the smoothie throne, how can a newcomer brand be seen and heard? 1 booSt Picking off key consumer needs with targeted functional blends is a point of difference in a ‘noisy’ chiller 2 innocent Hard to think the young buck of the juice section is now the wise old man, but is the future bright, or indeed orange (mango and pineapple) for Innocent?

tHe key no-go or amber-ligHt areaS 1 queStionable taSte Don’t forget that people won’t want to consume something that has an unpleasant connotation. Eating collagen smacks at best of an unappealing cosmetic taste experience and, at worst, of cannibalism. We therefore suspect that Hello Pretty oligo-collagen marshmallows will not be making the journey from Japan to unseat Starbursts as the bagged sweet of choice in the near future.

1 a French phenomenon Contrex has a loyal following who value the brand as their ‘partner in slimming.’

2 too good to be true? The healthy Texan sour pickle pops that kids love and keep hunger at bay.

of Co-enzyme Q10, there was major confusion over what it did (and Q10 has already had mixed success in the cosmetics category) and a strong sense it would taint the flavour of a product. For the others, it was one step of science too far. The product bombed within 18 months of launch, being withdrawn in 2007. 3 brand tHingS clearly The more you can conceive of a simple way to coin science, the better – ‘improving digestive transit’ is a lovely way to avoid the science of irritable bowel or gastro intestinal upset. And branding your magic ingredient in a way that conveys the benefit, as does ‘Fruitflow,’ the circulatory health ingredient, is an easy way to the consumer’s heart. 4 Finally, keep it Simple Early research and sales figures would indicate that far from ‘more is more’ being the mantra in healthy foods, ‘less is more’ is the way forward. Consumers seem increasingly overwhelmed by products that can boost digestive health, improve immunity, reduce allergies and aid circulation,

Dragon

it’S debatable wHetHer even tHe moSt foresight-laden trends expert could have predicted the exponential growth of the Smoothie market in the last 15 years. Yet it has proven to be the ultimate vigorous perennial, marching across Britain and the world, and shows few signs of slowing. After a slight health wobble, (fruit sugars), low level debate about carbon footprint (cleverly raised

in one bowl or bottle. There is an unravelling of credibility and also, an implied sense of almost scary levels of potency that comes from this claim overload (will it interact with my medication? Can I overdose?) Quite probably, it is just too much for the average consumer to take on board. So what could the future hold? Looking further out, we foresee a merging of the ‘official’ pharmaceutical world with the fmcg world. At least one of the major pharma companies has been in early talks with an fmcg manufacturer to look for future synergies. As patients the world over look to self medicate, as state healthcare provision declines, as chronic disease areas grow in an ageing population, the blurring of the boundaries between the two becomes more and more inevitable. So, will the future offer us low dose statin vegetable oil based spreads? Or perhaps anti-gingival waters? Or maybe even anti-arthritic cereals? One thing we are sure of is that the tightening of the claims regulations will shake up the market. Food for thought (or weight loss, or beauty, or long life) indeed…

Photo: Nestlé, Innocent. Boosted Smoothies was created by Dragon

One thing we are sure of is that the tightening of the claims regulations will shake up the market.

Photo: Dragon Rouge, Texan

2 tHe magic ingredient Remember that if your ‘magic ingredient’ is neither already understood or simply explainable (think of the bifidus digestivum and friendly bacteria mantra as a best-case example) then you’ll have an uphill struggle to launch. Emmi’s Lacto-tab Q10 is a case in point. The science was right, the target right, the launch and product format was right. But the communication didn’t connect. For those who even thought they knew

oFFering a point oF diFFerence In a market full of real fruit or blended fruit alternatives, Boost recognised the need to offer something new. Boosted smoothies – functionally (yet naturally) enhanced fruit drinks which deliver an additional functional health benefit, including the Teavigo-infused metabolism boost and the Vitamin C and probioticreinforced immunity boost.

tHe SucceSS oF a proven Formula Nestlé joined forces with the global retail leader Boost Juice Bars to fast-track expertise and credibility. Boost Juice Bars were set up in Adelaide, Australia in 2000 by Janine Allis, who wanted a healthy snacking alternative for her young sons. It’s a global success story in fresh, healthier living. Boost Juice Bars’ heritage gives Nestlé the authority to enter an established market.

and answered by Innocent) and everyone clambering onto the bandwagon, the market is still big and juicy, but also as close to bursting as an Innocent tetrapak. So how and why would Nestlé choose to take their first steps into this market, with Boosted Smoothies, launched in April? Here’s our top five reasons why this launch will be a true superfruit and not a squashed banana.

tHe 1+1=3 eFFect While Boost Juice Bars bring freshness and ‘naturality’ to the party, Nestlé brings the incremental functional nutritional know-how to bring a performance difference to the smoothie products. A perfect partnership and one which plays to equally credible heritage and expertise credentials that others quite simply lack.

Having paSSion beHind tHe brand Janine Allis is the handson powerhouse behind the retail Boost Juice Bars and puts every effort into keeping the offer fresh. Nestlé’s focus on ‘good food, good life’ and functional healthcare know-how make them the perfect partner. The energy and commitment behind the brand from both sides, plus the belief in spreading the healthy word, is palpable.

keeping tHingS lean and keen Nestlé and Boost recognised the need to keep things tight and have a focus. Their monthly all-agency ‘Boostie bashes’ share the excitement and keep a tight rein on planning. The use of new media is spreading the word in a more credible, viral way. Boost is treading the fine line between creating noise and building trust.

Dragon

JuicY cultuRE

functional fooDs

Smoothie Operator

Anti-arthritic cornflakes. Will the future see a blurring of classical healthcare boundaries and RX merging with FMCG?

1 a French phenomenon Contrex has a loyal following who value the brand as their ‘partner in slimming.’

2 too good to be true? The healthy Texan sour pickle pops that kids love and keep hunger at bay.

Dragon

Photo: Nestlé, Innocent. Boosted Smoothies was created by Dragon

One thing we are sure of is that the tightening of the claims regulations will shake up the market.

Photo: Dragon Rouge, Texan

Dragon

Q&A

Photograph by Tara Darby

Q&a

Patrick Burgoyne

Dragon

Editor of Creative Review Patrick Burgoyne talks to Dragonfly about brand honesty

What is your definition of an honest brand?

It would have to be one that is totally open and straightforward about everything that they do, without putting a misleading spin on things, even when to reveal certain information puts it at a disadvantage. With marketing as it is today, there’s an inevitable economy with the truth: a desire for a brand always to cast itself in the best possible light. This militates against being 100% honest, 100% of the time. I can’t think of a brand today that I could confidently declare to be completely honest in every sense of the word.

Can brands ever be honest and still compete?

What I will say is we’ve come to a point where, with the Internet, it’s more difficult to get away with dishonesty. Now you’ve got an audience who answer back; communication is two-way. More companies are recognising that it is tremendously damaging to be caught misbehaving or not meeting the standards expected of them. So they’re being forced to be more truthful.

Does a more complex, regulated world actually make it harder for brands to be straightforward?

It should make it easier but some rules aren’t that sympathetic to people trying to run a business.

Is it tougher for big brands than for small?

Yes, in the sense that it’s harder to control every aspect of the business when you’re big. Particularly if you’re using outside suppliers, such as Nike for example, and having to answer to shareholders. There are clearly some products where the effects of dishonesty can be more problematic than others. If a beauty product over-claims in terms of its effectiveness in reducing wrinkles it’s wrong but not necessarily harmful. However, if a drug manufacturer misleads the public about potentially dangerous side effects, that is obviously much more serious.

Do consumers really want honesty? Isn’t fantasy, fun and humour all part of a brand’s appeal (e.g. Lynx)?

It can be, but that’s not necessarily a question of honesty. If you are talking about a brand being honest, I would take that as referring to its ethical behaviour – how it operates as a business and what it tells consumers about itself. Of course marketing messages can be playful – that’s a very different thing to, say, deceiving consumers about how your products are made.

Which brand do you think is a shining example?

In terms of having its heart in the right place and trying to be honest in everything that it does, then I think that Howies sets a good example. It dealt with the issue over its investment from Timberland in a very straightforward way and is always clear about its values. I’d also cite the early days of The Body Shop. They were pioneers in this field.

Thanks to Vahakn Vorperian at Touch Digital.

In which categories is authenticity most important?

Q&a

Dragon

Q&A

Photograph by Tara Darby

Q&a

Patrick Burgoyne

Dragon

Editor of Creative Review Patrick Burgoyne talks to Dragonfly about brand honesty

What is your definition of an honest brand?

Can brands ever be honest and still compete?

Does a more complex, regulated world actually make it harder for brands to be straightforward?

It should make it easier but some rules aren’t that sympathetic to people trying to run a business.

Is it tougher for big brands than for small?

Do consumers really want honesty? Isn’t fantasy, fun and humour all part of a brand’s appeal (e.g. Lynx)?

Which brand do you think is a shining example?

Thanks to Vahakn Vorperian at Touch Digital.

In which categories is authenticity most important?

Q&a

Dragon

Chinese W hispers

illustrations by Spencer Wilson

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From briefing blunders to marketing miscommunications, the road to branding success does not always run smooth

The world’s most successful brands are forged through the joint endeavours of marketers and their agencies working in harmony. Together, they generate leading-edge products that straddle the world and revolutionise markets. But when clients and agencies get their wires crossed, it can lead to embarrassing and painful brand blunders Thankfully, most mix-ups are spotted early on in the process and the project goes back to the drawing board. But in some cases, misunderstandings can result in ad campaigns that get banned, pack redesigns that alienate customers and new products that nobody wants. Confusion at the briefing stage is where client and agency relations often go awry. Marketers may have an idea in their heads, but fail to communicate it adequately to the agencies tasked with bringing the brainwave to life. Alternatively, the agency itself may fail to grasp the issues at hand. Either way, when the agency eventually produces the work, the marketer may look on in horror and declare: “This is not what I had in mind.” That was no doubt the reaction of marketers at Southern Comfort when the advertising agency they hired to relaunch the brand in the UK a few years ago created what was supposed to be a lighthearted campaign in fact featuring people dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits. Given the brand’s heritage in the southern states of America, there could hardly have been a more tasteless theme. The agency’s services were quickly dispensed with and another was brought in. Such glaringly inappropriate executions are usually ditched straight away and the marketing process starts again. But ill-advised ventures can make it all the way to supermarket shelves before the penny drops that there is a fundamental problem with the brand’s proposition or packaging. Coca-Cola marketers must have been stunned by the reaction Whoops! When Coca-Cola’s Dasani was proven to be ‘Source Sidcup’ it met an untimely and rapid end

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of the British media to the company’s UK launch of ‘purified’ bottled water Dasani, a top seller in the United States. The £7m launch was stymied when it emerged that Dasani was not taken from a mineral source, but used filtered tap water drawn from the general supply. UK water companies were infuriated by the product’s claim to be ‘pure’, implying that unfiltered tap water was anything but. The media ridiculed Coca-Cola for the launch with headlines such as ‘Eau dear’ and ‘The real sting’. The final nail in the coffin came when Dasani was found to contain dangerous levels of the chemical Bromate. It was soon axed in the UK. Some observers believe Coca-Cola’s centralised structure, where worldwide decisions are driven from the company’s head office in Atlanta, may have contributed to the misfortune. Coca-Cola executives in Britain neglected to get the UK water industry on side for the launch and failed to understand that using the word ‘pure’ in Dasani’s marketing was like a red rag to a bull for the water companies. Some wonder how much research was done on attitudes to water purity in the UK or how much heed given to the semi mature status of the UK bottled water market and thus consumer sophistication versus the US. The Dasani misfortune strikes at the heart of the idea that brands can be launched globally with only minor tweaks in local markets. The saga revealed muddled lines of communication between the local UK office and Coca-Cola’s central command which resulted in a failure to carry out adequate due diligence on the launch. According to Quentin Higham, a former marketing director at Revlon, Swatch and Coty, there are fewer opportunities for misapprehensions between client and agency when they are working on long-established brands owned by large multinationals. Such brands tend to have clear guidelines on packaging and advertising, which leave little scope for marketers and agencies to misinterpret the company’s wishes. Redesigns and ad campaigns tend to go quite smoothly. Trouble often arises, he believes, when multinationals launch completely new products. Their marketers are used to working by the rulebook, and often have limited experience at creating brands from scratch. Higham, who runs personal care brands created by celebrities through his company HOQ, blames much of the confusion on a lack of clarity from clients when briefing agencies. “Often clients say to agencies, you come up with some ideas, let’s see what you’ve got and we’ll test your creativity. Then the designer comes back with

Written by David Benady Photo: Getty Images

“I’m Not Sure That’s What I Really Meant!”

Dragon

Chinese W hispers

illustrations by Spencer Wilson

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From briefing blunders to marketing miscommunications, the road to branding success does not always run smooth

Dragon

Written by David Benady Photo: Getty Images

“I’m Not Sure That’s What I Really Meant!”

Dragon

JArGOn

Chinese W hispers

Dragon

di·a·logue (dahy-uh-lawg)

It’s true that Shakespeare used ‘dialogue’ as a verb (“Dost dialogue with thy shadow?”). But resist the temptation to use this utterly superfluous verb as a substitute for ‘talk’ or ‘speak.’

Translation:

Overheard in a conversation where an art director wanted more pictures.

push·back (poosh-bak)

If you have a lot of sound ideas you’re bound to run into resistance, especially in today’s business environment. This resistance, often polite but always absurd, is euphemistically called ‘pushback.’

‘Shelf Shout’

‘‘This Pushback’ will really make the

ink on the page!’

‘Dialogue’ ‘I think we need more

They’re everywhere from design studios to business meetings; pitches to presentations, ingrained within the everyday occurrences of our day-to-day lives. We know they exists, laugh about them to colleagues and are bamboozled when confronted with new ones. They’re the business-speak and brand terms for those seemingly out-ofplace words used in bureaucratic, business or design environments everywhere. Some are new inventions, designed purely to fit a situation, others you’ll have heard before and some you may have – shudder – found yourself using! Welcome to the world of utter twaddle…

*dragonfly@dragonbrands.com

They perceive the brand as one thing, but the reality is different. It is about always making sure you refer back to the customer insights and the business objectives behind the brief.” He says it can help if the client spends some time explaining business objectives before giving the brief. Newland believes there is an important role for a Client Services Director who can act as ‘interpreter’ between the creative language of the agencies and the business language of the client. But he believes good ones are hard to find. Another aspect of relations between client and agency that can lead to confusion is the proliferation of agencies involved in creating a marketing campaign or new product. There are researchers, direct marketers, advertising creatives, designers and brand consultants all vying for a top place at the brand owner’s table. This contributed to problems surrounding the launch of London 2012’s jagged logo last year. The organisers were expecting uproar over the design, knowing that the media love to attack ‘expensive’ branding and logos, especially when paid for out of public money. They prepared themselves for the criticisms, predicting they would die down after a couple of days. But the unexpected happened when a few seconds of animated film of the logo from a promotional film was reported to trigger epileptic fits. The agency, which had made the film had reportedly failed to test the footage to measure photosensitivity, in contravention of Ofcom guidelines. This was particularly embarrassing as the logo promotes both the Olympics and Para Olympic games for disabled athletes. Another notable mishap where marketers were incredulous at the results of a new product development brief was Britvic’s launch of Freekin Soda. First it was obliged to change the name when it emerged that ‘freekin’ is ghetto slang for sexual intercourse. So it became Freekee Soda. But then it faced a legal challenge from Spanish sweet brand Freekee drops. So the brand relaunched as Tango Strange Soda. Eventually, it was axed altogether. According to Andrew Marsden, marketing director of Britvic at the time, the problem with the original name arose because: “The advertising was approved to be made but not to be aired,” so a full check had not been made before it was broadcast. Marsden says mistakes can usually be avoided through ensuring clarity in briefing agencies, and he suggests briefs should always be written rather than verbal. He also believes clients should take time to consider work before passing judgment rather than giving an instant verdict. But he rejects the criticism that Byzantine company structures where departments work in silos contributes to misunderstandings between agencies and clients. He calls this “sour grapes” on the part of agencies. That said, he believes agencies must be aware that any work they create will have to be signed off at different levels within the company. “Once the design is approved, there are several stages before it is approved for final production. Before they start the task, agencies should know very clearly who is going to approve the work,” he says. The briefing process needs to be perfected so clients are not subjected to unwelcome surprises. At the same time, agencies must be given leeway to produce inspirational bolts from the blue every so often.

Inane, seemingly meaningless words, phrases, acronyms, bits of jargon and anecdotes that have become part and parcel of our design and business vocabulary

product sing off the page!’

Brand talk

When clients and agencies get their wires crossed, it can lead to embarrassing and painful brand blunders

Photo: Getty Images, Lavinia Mirabella

their ideas and the client says, “That is not what I wanted” and blames the agency. “They should give the designer a blank piece of paper and work with them on creating ideas. Often brand managers have their own strong views about what they want in the brand, but find it hard to communicate these to agencies. The process needs to be more open.” Another source argues that client briefs are often contradictory. They call for groundbreaking ideas and creative work, but when agencies develop a cutting-edge proposition, clients get cold feet and worry that their bosses might find the solution too radical. In the case of much-loved existing brands, it may be the consumers who decide that a revamp or rebranding exercise is a step too far. A packaging redesign for Mr Kipling cakes two years ago attempted to move the brand upmarket, but led to a steep fall in sales. Ian McMahon, chief executive of brand owner RHM, admitted to shareholders that the range’s £8m relaunch had alienated existing customers and led to a 13% fall in sales. “Packaging designed to create a more premium feel proved to be less popular with our core customer base at a time when promotional spend was focused on new products rather than core lines,” he said. McMahon claimed that the revamped packaging had initially been well received. This may be a case of design, which works well in research but tanks on the supermarket shelf. A new branding agency was brought in to refresh the revamp. On the positive side, even a serious faux pas can provide an opportunity for self-evaluation, allowing those involved to identify When rebranding goes Wrong where they went wrong and learn from their mistakes. In the worst Mr Kipling misjudged cases, they may have to take their learnings elsewhere and find the needs of the another job. But, on the whole, marketing gaffes are rarely career modern consumer and killers. The question is, how can confusion be avoided? took a refreshment step Richard Newland, head of retail design at HSBC and previously at Dixons Stores Group, says he has often sat looking blank-faced and too far with the brand. confused when presented with design and advertising agencies’ The Olympic 2012 logo interpretations of what he thought was a clear brief. “It is frustrating reveal demonstrated for a client and you think, “Do they really understand what my that evolution not business is about?” A lot of agencies miss the point; they have revolution was the mood fantasised about the business and made incorrect assumptions. of the nation.

Email us your Jargon busters!*

Translation:

“I needed something to say in the meeting and this was the best I could think of.”

shelf·shout (shhelf-showt)

Attention-grabbing aspect of a product in a shop or store.

Dragon

JArGOn

Chinese W hispers

Dragon

di·a·logue (dahy-uh-lawg)

Translation:

Overheard in a conversation where an art director wanted more pictures.

push·back (poosh-bak)

‘Shelf Shout’

‘‘This Pushback’ will really make the

ink on the page!’

‘Dialogue’ ‘I think we need more

*dragonfly@dragonbrands.com

Inane, seemingly meaningless words, phrases, acronyms, bits of jargon and anecdotes that have become part and parcel of our design and business vocabulary

product sing off the page!’

Brand talk

When clients and agencies get their wires crossed, it can lead to embarrassing and painful brand blunders

Photo: Getty Images, Lavinia Mirabella

Email us your Jargon busters!*

Translation:

“I needed something to say in the meeting and this was the best I could think of.”

shelf·shout (shhelf-showt)

Attention-grabbing aspect of a product in a shop or store.

Dragon

howies

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Howies: the clothing company blazing a trail for socially responsible marketing written by Dorothy Mackenzie

Brand Sense & Sustainability

A brAnd WITH A mIssIon Howies make outdoor clothing for sporty people and sell this via mail order, Internet, and now through a real store. But they have a purpose that goes much broader – to make people think about the world. The clothes themselves, and the stories around 1 Howies Tee Howies original logo T-shirt. 2 some front Their first London store opened up recently in Carnaby Street.

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them educate, inform and challenge. Profile building activities are frequently linked to social messaging. The brand has a distinctive point of view – a desire to change things for the better. In a category where products have become disposable, they are the challenger – the antithesis of fashion, offering higher quality, longer lasting products with lower impact. The Howies mission sets a philosophy (captured in their ‘stuff we believe in’ statement), which contributes as much to the brand as the products themselves do… • We believe in making stuff that lasts. • We believe in good old-fashioned service. • We believe in sport. • We believe the environment needs a few more friends. • We believe in making people think as well as buy. • We believe the glass is half-full. • We believer higher quality means lower impact. GeTTInG THe deTAIls rIGHT Howies make a big effort to use only the most sustainable materials – organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, recycled polyester. But even the smallest details are carefully considered. They use metal from old cars to make rivets for jeans. They would replace a customer’s torn jacket arm to extend the life of the jacket. Their Carnaby Street store uses water-based paints, low-energy light bulbs and recycled glass. When shooting their summer catalogue, they sent the clothes to South Africa and California, but didn’t go themselves, to save on the carbon footprint. They send catalogues only to people who ask for them, to minimise waste. All great exemplar expressions of what the brand is all about – and all adding up to a very consistent and credible overall brand perception. It’s impossible not to trust a brand that opens up all the minute details of its behaviour for scrutiny.

Photo: Howies

owies has become the definitive modern, responsible brand, setting the standard in innovative, sustainable behaviour and communication. It exemplifies how to integrate sustainability into a brand in an authentic way, and how to build a brand through behaving responsibly. Although still a very small company, it has a big influence. It’s the new Innocent – the brand you wished your brand was like. The brand you would have started yourself if you weren’t quite so busy at work. Not everyone has the freedom of operation of a niche fashion brand. But what Howies are doing shows some interesting directions for people starting to incorporate sustainability into their brand. Howies are demonstrating that sustainability provides a strong platform for customer engagement and collaboration, as well as inspiring highly innovative and desirable product and communication.

Dragon

howies

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Howies: the clothing company blazing a trail for socially responsible marketing written by Dorothy Mackenzie

Brand Sense & Sustainability

Dragon

Photo: Howies

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howies

1 doh boy Howie’s mascot’s a simple lad. 2 Talking shop Inside the Carnaby Street store.

enGAGInG cusTomers Howies have even less marketing money than most brands, but find lots of innovative ways of getting the brand known and putting across messages. Their distinctive and wholehearted commitment to sustainability creates great PR coverage. But they also connect with people very directly. They painted a van with blackboard paint, wrote on this, ‘Nuclear power – is it green, or is it dumb?’ They drove the van around skate parks, inviting people to write in their views – supporting or challenging nuclear power. Clever marketing – or something beyond? Subtly selling products – or collaborating with people to stimulate a debate? HITTInG THe rIGHT Tone Howies make what they do sound normal – just a little advanced. It sounds positive and pragmatic, not earnest and worthy. Genuine and natural, rather than trying too hard. They don’t claim to be perfect – just trying hard to get on the right track – and they’re not worried if they can’t do everything at once. They focus on organic rather than fair trade, for example. More and more marketing people are trying to work out where sustainability fits into how they define their brand, and how this should influence brand behaviour and communication. It won’t be the same for every brand, of course. But it’s obviously essential for commitments to be translated into visible, meaningful actions – and integrated into the core offer rather than stuck on one side. It will be interesting to see how Howies develops now it’s owned by Timberland. Expand and amplify – or compromise? A tight, credible, sustainable brand is hard to achieve and is a major long term asset – and Timberland no doubt recognise this - so Howies probably have a good chance of continuing to be pace setter for modern, socially responsible brands.

Dragon

3 Get shirty Howie’s infamous printed T-shirts (which change all the time), plus their T-shirt of the week. 4 moral fibre The company’s organic denim is grown without using any of the nasty stuff.

Q& A

Marksteen Adamson

Say it ain’t so! Dragonfly asks the ArthurSteenHorneAdamson partner if the ‘craft of branding’ really is dying out

Photography by Leo Cackett

Which brands show that brand design, based on a strong creative idea and crafted with care, can truly stand the test of time?

So is crafting under threat?

Why is it important to preserve it – for brands and for their consumers?

What will be the implications for brands if the craft of branding becomes an endangered art form?

Which brands are killing themselves by not investing in the craft of branding?

FedEx, IBM, V&A, BP, Reuters, Heineken, Marmite, Eat, but one of my favourites is BMW. They came from nothing to become a world-class brand, and constantly deliver. It’s that absolute consistency and constant innovation that makes brands great. The problem arises when brands try too hard. When they start looking to ‘stretch the brand’ rather than focussing on what they do best. For instance, Harley Davidson stretching into plastic clocks and other crap. It eats away at the brand. They need to stick to bikes and they’ll keep their loyal following. As Douglas Rushkoff put it “Get back to thinking inside the box”. No. There will always be designers bleating about the lack of opportunity on projects to do something special. The truth is, they’re not very inspiring designers. Any client can yield award-winning work, you just have to try harder. If clients are directing your design, you’re not doing your job. If you’re passionate, it goes without saying. There will always be poor design and badly conceived brands that put us all to shame in the same way there will always be fake Rolexes. You can’t stop that. What you can do is celebrate the best examples and lead by example. It never will. There will always be a place for exciting new brands that constantly challenge our thinking.

Carphone Warehouse and Woolworths – they’re lazy, cheap, ineffective and they’ve lost their way. Nobody knows what Woolworths is for anymore and when it comes to Carphone Warehouse, they were never a great brand in the first place. People just want a good phone and fair tariffs, not a bicycle or a racoon. Dragon

WHAT IS STRATEGY?

“However Beautiful the Strategy,You Should Occasionally Look at the Results” So said Winston Churchill, and he should know – he understood a thing or two about winning. When it comes to running a successful company, his words have never been more relevant Written by Keith Wells

What Would Winston do?

Ask Churchill

Photo: Getty Images

“It is always wise to look ahead”

Dragon

Arguably the most cunning strategist of the last century, Winston Churchill served as British Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He’s known chiefly for his leadership of Britain during World War II.

trategy must be one of the most overused words in the world. But we have to wonder how many people really understand it. And if they don’t understand it, they certainly can’t deliver it. You can’t start a strategy with the word ‘to’. It might sound nit-picky, but without the right definition, you can’t go far. Objectives can start with a ‘to’, but that’s because they’re things to work towards. That’s what should come first. Strategy is how you achieve those objectives. For many people, the idea of ‘strategy’ has become an end in itself, rather than a means to that end. It’s odd to see how ‘strategy houses’ have become a recognised genre all of their own – odd, because it raises the questions of who owns a strategy and where it’s supposed to sit in an organisation. How many should there be? It almost doesn’t matter – there’s an argument that says any organisation needs to approach its targets from many different perspectives and so multiple strategies should be expected. HR, Finance, Marketing, anyone can, and should, have their own sense of the contribution they make to the overall performance. If the overall objective is clear, then all parts of the organisation should be

able to translate that into their own version – and they should all converge. It starts to get really messy when two strategies start to pull in opposite directions. The Operational Excellence (or, often, the Finance boys) start talking about cutting costs, about rightsizing, simplifying things. They make recommendations like off-shoring, voiceactivated automation, encouraging people to email or pay through the internet. At the same time, the Marketing team are trying to bring the organisation closer to the customer. Brand Values are probably making their way into various internal communications, possibly crossing the path of HR as they do so, preaching about ‘integrity/customer focus/innovation/quality’ or other blandishments. The Pushme is taking the organisation in one direction, the Pullme is going the other way. They might both be thinking they’re working towards the same objective, but it looks like somebody forgot to talk. Or to look at the results – too busy pursuing their own strategy and admiring the view. Who ‘owns’ the strategy? Standard question, standard answer: the CEO. But is that right – or even fair? Maybe the CEO should be held responsible for setting the vision of the organisation, for describing the ambition and for ensuring that the key stakeholders understand that. And, of course, for the performance of the organisation overall. That’s the ‘results’ part of Winston’s comment. So, if the CEO is looking at the results, who’s looking after the strategy? Surely that should be more widely spread across the organisation – because if the overall objectives form the focal point, the strategy to achieve them depends on many efforts coming together. So far, so good – and probably no surprises or dissent. But who

Dragon

WHAT IS STRATEGY?

What Would Winston do?

Ask Churchill

Photo: Getty Images

“It is always wise to look ahead”

Dragon

SAY WHAT?

WHAT IS STRATEGY?

Overheard

can guarantee that they all come together properly? Some businesses have decided that this should be the remit of a ‘Strategy Director’ – a role that is comparatively young in corporate life and one that many people are beginning to question. To establish a role that looks purely at strategy seems to suggest that ‘strategy’ is an area, a competence, a responsibility that somehow sits outside of the mainstream activities of its organisation. It feels like an admission that something is missing from the leaders’ understanding of where their business is heading, or that they’re not quite good enough to make it all happen. And it goes back to the issue of what, exactly, a strategy is – if it’s the means by which objectives are achieved, then it shouldn’t need a separate responsibility to make it deliver. It should be in everyone’s leadership credentials, and it should only go to improve the results, which everyone can see.

Dragon

“

We need to get the alpha pup view on the new mobile phone concept

”

They talked it up as if it was the next big thing, but when it came back from research, all they had was a warm bowl of nothing

it was a true zombie project, six rounds of research and it’s still not dead...

again, is that enough, or even sustainable? Perhaps the USP needs its own rebrand. Instead of the ‘S’ standing for ‘selling’, what if we made it into ‘S’ for ‘superiority’? That might get people’s minds back onto what really matters – looking for how they can prove that they do things better than, not just different from, their competitors. It would certainly focus the attention on the results, or the effect, and ensure that the strategy was aligned with such a clear objective. Are organisations prepared to commit to a superiority goal? They’d have to work out where they could achieve that, what would be relevant and not, and what would be needed to drive performance on all the right criteria. Their strategies would be focused on a clear deliverable and obviously, measurable. The ‘how’ is the new ‘what’ And vice versa. The more people have come to realise the difficulty in creating true differentiation through the product or physical offerings, the more they have looked to the softer

side. “It’s not so much what you sell, as how you sell it.” Hence the drive towards customer service training, and the way even the biggest organisations are now embracing customercentric models. There is another question here, which is how to achieve ‘differentiation’ when everyone seems to be doing the same training, but maybe that’s best left to another day. If we all focus on the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’, we’re not far from the time when the ‘how’ is indeed the ‘what’. There’s no harm in that at all, provided brands and organisations can provide the distinction between each other’s offers, and that they can deliver superiority through those definitions. But it’s interesting that if the ‘what’ is the harder-edged dimension and is being overtaken as the focus of attention, it is running in parallel with the surge in attention for ‘strategy’ over ‘objectives’. Listen to Winston again. No matter how beautiful the strategy, it if doesn’t work, it’s a dog. For all the attention on the ‘how’, maybe more should be given to the ‘how well?’

Photo: Getty Images. *dragonfly@dragonbrands.com

Be different, stand out from the crowd – there is something unique in every brand. ‘Zig, while the others zag.’

Photo: Getty Images

There has to be a better way Let’s assume the definition bit is sorted – we’re not going to confuse strategy with objectives any more. So, we move on to the execution of that strategy. And then on to the whole reason why it exists in the first place – the results people want to achieve. Commercial realities barely need to be repeated, and we’ll go into cliché overload if we start, but no organisation today thinks that it can keep doing the same things, in the same way and achieve better results. Very few organisations are likely to fuel growth with increased expenditure – most are looking to achieve more with less. So, everyone’s playing much the same game, on much the same field, with pretty much the same rules. And they’re all trying to win and make big leadership statements (have a look at a typical ‘mission statement’ or corporate descriptor – how many ‘leaders’ can there be in any one market, sector or geography?). Something’s got to give. And it might be some of the old ‘givens’ of doing business well, like looking for differentiation. Or it might be a rejection of some of the more recent innovations. Is the USP dead? Is it even relevant any more? Generations of marketers and their agency partners have grown up on a diet of USPs. Always look for that unique point of difference. Be different, stand out from the crowd – there is something unique in every brand. ‘Zig, while the others zag.’ That might not be true any more, if it ever was. Technology, the preponderance of management training and processes, the fluid employment market, all of these factors have contributed to an environment in which it’s all too easy to catch up and copy others. It is, in fact, extremely difficult to find a genuinely unique point of difference – and almost impossible to make that a relevant point of difference. OK, which is why you get people saying, “It’s all about the brand”, and of course that’s a fair argument – to differentiate on the basis of the more emotional or intangible elements. But

Heard any inane quotes? Email them to us!*

From the bizarre, to the baffling, to the frankly bonkers. Maybe check with your imagination and visioneering department

“

I don’t have the bandwidth to think about anything else right now

He’s the last of the jargonauts – never heard so much management speak held together in one sentence

{

”}

What we want to do with the product is create a phenomeniche in the sauce market

Dragon

SAY WHAT?

WHAT IS STRATEGY?

Overheard

Dragon

“

We need to get the alpha pup view on the new mobile phone concept

”

They talked it up as if it was the next big thing, but when it came back from research, all they had was a warm bowl of nothing

it was a true zombie project, six rounds of research and it’s still not dead...

Photo: Getty Images. *dragonfly@dragonbrands.com

Be different, stand out from the crowd – there is something unique in every brand. ‘Zig, while the others zag.’

Photo: Getty Images

Heard any inane quotes? Email them to us!*

From the bizarre, to the baffling, to the frankly bonkers. Maybe check with your imagination and visioneering department

“

I don’t have the bandwidth to think about anything else right now

He’s the last of the jargonauts – never heard so much management speak held together in one sentence

{

”}

What we want to do with the product is create a phenomeniche in the sauce market

Dragon

10 THINGS

ses Dres

ow Gr

ry one i t Sta y o

s in og

Pla yb

We asked Londoners for their least favourite brands and general bugbears. Here’s the results

in Burgers kles Pic

Ten Things That do Exist and Shouldn’t!

In abstract you can admire the lateral thinking, but it’s really got to be a brand extension way too wide.

Cel er y

Global warming? Recession hitting? A disposable luxury, surely?

Frantically trying to keep up All wrong. There with consumers, brands should still be a are stretching the truth when parental control option on this trend

Wo m

en W e ar in g

it oK l l e H

The original ‘stealth health’ ingredient except no-one realised they’re not healthy and half the world hate them.

gic Trees Ma

Scare Children, Scare Adults. Scary.

One acronym too far.

6 Ry

Dragon

Ryanair: surely all that good stuff about 360-degree brands means something? You oughtn’t to be quite so cavalier with your customers and still succeed on operational savvy alone.

air

7 G WA

Foxtons: a brand that reinforces the stereotype of the flash, shallow, quickbuck estate agent when what the market needs is something to challenge it.

on ’s

Designed to mask bad smells but more likely to induce nausea in any mini-cab

Photo: Getty Images, Corbis

Clo w

Tasteless. Stringy. More calories to chew than in it. And an allergan.

t x Fo

10 Dragon

10 THINGS

ses Dres

ow Gr

ry one i t Sta y o

s in og

Pla yb

We asked Londoners for their least favourite brands and general bugbears. Here’s the results

in Burgers kles Pic

Ten Things That do Exist and Shouldn’t!

In abstract you can admire the lateral thinking, but it’s really got to be a brand extension way too wide.

Cel er y

Global warming? Recession hitting? A disposable luxury, surely?

Frantically trying to keep up All wrong. There with consumers, brands should still be a are stretching the truth when parental control option on this trend

Wo m

en W e ar in g

it oK l l e H

The original ‘stealth health’ ingredient except no-one realised they’re not healthy and half the world hate them.

gic Trees Ma

Scare Children, Scare Adults. Scary.

One acronym too far.

6 Ry

Dragon

Ryanair: surely all that good stuff about 360-degree brands means something? You oughtn’t to be quite so cavalier with your customers and still succeed on operational savvy alone.

air

7 G WA

Foxtons: a brand that reinforces the stereotype of the flash, shallow, quickbuck estate agent when what the market needs is something to challenge it.

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Designed to mask bad smells but more likely to induce nausea in any mini-cab

Photo: Getty Images, Corbis

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Tasteless. Stringy. More calories to chew than in it. And an allergan.

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10 Dragon

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TO BE CONTINUED…

Look What We Found!

The brands that are rocking the Dragon team’s world… 1

Lavinia Mirabella, Designer Hamburg’s Premium-Cola. A collective of cola obsessives. They put art pictures on the inside of their bottles’ labels, and unlike their goliath rivals, proudly print their secret ingredients brightly on the label too.

Luke Vincent, Consultant New sustainable snowboarding brand, Moah. Hotlooking technical wear, cool organic T-shirts and they donate 1% of their turnover to environmental action groups. Eco-boarding bliss!

Lana Bdeir, Account Manager The US brand, Glaceau, have introduced a whole new concept: vitamin water. They handle their brand with humour and their labels are eye-catching and funny.

Dragon

Call us Art Director Craig Brooks

Andrew Phillips, Business Development Director Mr Porky’s Prime Cut Scratchings. Good to see premiumisation trickling down to the ultimate compulsively tasty, ‘bad boy’ snacks. As the website says, “There’s snout better with a pint.”

Liana Dinghile, Senior Consultant The website inluxury.co.uk. A way to get straight to the nicer side of life. Yes it’s another online travel offering, this time a luxury portal, but when I saw it I was reminded of the more classic, simple approach to naming.

Keshi Bouri, Creative Director Baltika – new on tap at selected bars in London. Brewed in St. Petersburg, Russia, it’s a massive hit and available in 9 styles... Number 3 is the first you’ll taste here. Keep an eye out!

Managing Editor Kerry O’Connor Contributing Writers Kate Waddell, Keith Wells, Keshi Bouri, Dorothy Mackenzie, Chris Barber, Kitty Melrose, Camilla Way, Nina Cooper, Joe Hale, David Benady, Simon Attfield, Duncan Baizley, Lee Turner, Maeve Hosea & Tom Harvey Photographers Stuart White, Tara Darby, Leo Cackett, Lavinia Mirabella Illustrators Spencer Wilson, Andrew Rae, Peter Horridge Stylist/Make-up Johanna Dalemo

Jane Owens, Senior Designer The Fine Cheese Company have launched a fabulous new range of artisan biscuits called Elegant & English, which builds on the parent brand’s core value as a quintessentially English classic with a twist.

Dragon

Justin Darkwah, New Business Manager New retail concept in Whiteleys called ‘Food Inc.’ from Harvey Nichols.

Deirdre Findlay, Client Director Lumene skincare is all the way from the Arctic. It has ingredients like nourishing Arctic sea buckthorn, antiageing Arctic heather and Arctic white peat. All richer in antioxidants, sterols and other good things.

Repro and Printing Printed by Boss Print on CarbonNeutral™ Revive Silk 75 (made from 75% Recycled Fibre) paper, using vegetable based inks and biodegradable Cellogreen® Laminate. This is fully recyclable.

As you can see we have some interesting thoughts on brands; what works, what doesn’t and what should never have been tried in the first place. If you do have a branding challenge that you’d like to discuss or if you’d like us to explore a new issue altogether, give us a call or send us an email, we’ll give you a fresh perspective, challenge your thinking and probably make you laugh as well.

Dragonfly Dragon, 1 Craven Hill, London, W2 3EN T F E @

+44 (0)20 7262 4488 +44 (0)20 7262 6406 dragonfly@dragonbrands.com www.dragonbrands.com

FOUND

TO BE CONTINUED…

Look What We Found!

The brands that are rocking the Dragon team’s world… 1

Lana Bdeir, Account Manager The US brand, Glaceau, have introduced a whole new concept: vitamin water. They handle their brand with humour and their labels are eye-catching and funny.

Dragon

Call us Art Director Craig Brooks

Dragon

Justin Darkwah, New Business Manager New retail concept in Whiteleys called ‘Food Inc.’ from Harvey Nichols.

Dragonfly Dragon, 1 Craven Hill, London, W2 3EN T F E @

+44 (0)20 7262 4488 +44 (0)20 7262 6406 dragonfly@dragonbrands.com www.dragonbrands.com